Competitiveness in the Supply Chain
The complexity of Dow’s integrated supply chain is unparalleled. We purchase more than 450 million tons of raw materials and feedstocks from more than 1,000 suppliers. We use these materials to produce more than 3,200 products, serving 45,000 customer ship-to locations in 160 countries. Dow manages more than two million shipments each year from more than 150 manufacturing sites in 30 different countries.
In a global economy, competitiveness must be a key driver and policy priority. The EU Commission estimates that one in four private sector jobs in the EU are in the manufacturing sector. More importantly, manufacturing will play a critical role in Europe’s ability to compete with other countries. In fact, the European Commission has nominated Industrial Policy as its EU2020 flagship initiative to enhance European competitiveness.
For Dow and other manufacturers, competitiveness can be achieved by promoting innovative production processes and products, and through actions that facilitate coordination of global value chains in the chemical sector. Energy in particular is a key area where European leaders can promote the importance of energy efficiency in the industrial sector, thereby driving reductions in energy use, resource consumption and emissions across the value chain.
To ensure the new Industrial Policy framework will achieve the EU2020 goals – and that Europe’s major innovations can be leveraged on a global level – Dow recommends addressing several key barriers, including Europe’s fragments infrastructure and transport systems, the need for consistent regulation enforcement across borders and ensuring consistent definition and enforcement of corporate liability among Member States.